The Royal Adelaide Show comes about every year and each and every time it turns out to be a great success. The South Australian Agricultural Society was formed in 1839 and the first ever produce show was in 1840. The first ever livestock show was in 1843 and then year by year it grew incorporating more and more, right until present times.

I remember going to the show when I was a kid and in those days, from what I can remember, the show bags were for free and contained samples of the many products that were produced on the land. Not so today, show bags can set you back a pretty penny if you don’t watch out but there are always bargains to be had and so it pays to shop around. As far as products go, there are a lot of tastings going around and these always attract quite a crowd.

Now we all know that when planning a cruise you need to formulate ideas for your med cruise but not so for the Royal Adelaide Show! All you need is a free day and to rock up on one of the fine sunny days. I say that because there have been days when the rain tries to put a damper on things. Yet even when it rains you can always find something to do in the many pavilions. One such pavilion held a sheep shearing exhibition and I was lucky enough to take a video of it.

It was really interesting to see the guy in action and to actually listen to him explaining what he was doing and why he was doing it in a specific way. It’s been quite awhile since I had been to the show and I was glad to visit it once again. So if you’re ever in Adelaide in September you should check their home page to see when it’s on.

Seeing as how we’ve been spending a little bit of time in Hahndorf these last few posts I thought I may as well tell you about this beautiful church that you will find further up the main street., the actual address being 10 Main Street Hahndorf.

Strangely enough although the early settlers of Hahndorf originally came to the region to escape religious persecution a rift developed between some of the Lutheran population. This caused some to split from the original St Michaels Church, the oldest Lutheran Church in Australia, must get a photo of that, to form another congregation and another church, that of St Pauls that you see in the photo below.

This article contain some interesting information on Hahndorf and can click on the following one for Mass Times and such.

They reckon that the Adelaide Arcade is the place to shop, and yes it does have a lot of lovely boutiques as well as a few places to sit and relax with a nice cup of coffee.

When originally built in 1885 it had about 50 shops but today it boasts over 100 outlets on multi-levels. What’s surprising is that it took only 5 months to build. Surprising because it would take much longer today even with all the modern technological advances.

For those of you who are interested there’s a very good site with a comprehensive history of the Adelaide Arcade. The Adelaide Arcade even has it’s own museum with artifacts depicting it’s history. You’ll find it on the balcony level of Gays Arcade.

This photo was taken from the Rundle Mall entrance.

This one from the opposite end, the Grenfell St. entrance. Considering how much detail went into the building it’s quite remarkable that they completed it in such a short time. I wonder if it has anything to do with the work ethics of the time.

I found the interior to be just as pleasing as the exterior and if I highly recommend that you stop by when visiting this wonderful city of ours.